


I'm Not Ready

by trashpits



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Paparuris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:09:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5779948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashpits/pseuds/trashpits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin doesn't think he's cut out to be a father. Maybe taking care of his nephew will help him change his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Not Ready

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by that part in Steven Universe where Garnet is like "Tiny hands: my only weakness."

Erwin was a bit nervous to accept when his sister asked if he and Levi could look after her three year old son for a week while her and her husband took a much needed vacation. Sure, he and Levi had discussed kids of their own from time to time, but whenever the topic would come up, no matter how much Levi would tell him otherwise, Erwin would say that he didn’t think he was ready to be a father. And, in his heart of hearts, he truly believed it. He didn’t know the first thing about raising a child, so why would putting someone else’s child in his care be considered a good idea?

Erwin loved his nephew very much, and enjoyed playing games with the little one whenever they would visit, but this was a whole other playing field. Armin was always happy and giggling when he was around Erwin, and if there was any sign of sadness for whatever reason, his mother would scoop him up and take care of it. How do you stop a child from crying? What if he gets severely injured? What do three year olds even eat?

But his sister was desperate, so Erwin sighed and told her that he would talk it over with Levi.

It was a short talk, really. Levi was always all for starting a family with Erwin, but never pushed too hard since he could tell that Erwin really wasn’t  mentally ready. But when the chance arose, Levi was quick to take it.

The smaller man crawled into bed next to Erwin and allowed himself to be swept up in the other’s warmth, like he would any other night. Just as he began drift, Erwin let out a sigh, one of many that day.

Levi turned to him, “Alright, I’m tired of you doing that. What is it?”

A pause. Then another sigh. “Do you remember Anna?”

“Your sister? Of course, she’s constantly leaving us voice mails asking us when we’re going to get together again. How could I forget?”

“Hah, yeah well, she’s going out of town for a week with Vincent and-”

“And she wants us to watch Armin?”

“Yeah. I don’t see why we couldn’t. I mean, I’m at work most of the day. It’d mostly be you, so I thought I should talk it over with you first.”

Erwin feels Levi shift and suddenly sees livid blue eyes staring at him hard through the darkness. “Do you want to?”

“I said I’d talk to you before agreeing to anything.”

“But do _you_ want to?”

Erwin’s not completely sure. “If you want to, yes.”

“Alright.” Levi says, turning back around to press his back against Erwin’s chest. “Tell her to bring him over whenever she needs along with Armin’s things.”

A few days later Anna shows up at around 9:30 in the evening with a sleeping Armin in one arm and a few bags of things in the other.

“Thank you guys so much for doing this. You have no idea how much it means to me and Vince.”

Levi waves it off with an “It’s nothing.” and leads Anna to the guest bedroom where Armin will be staying. While the two of them put Armin to bed, Erwin helps Vincent bring in more of Armin’s things from the car. Erwin thinks it’s an absurd amount of stuff for just a week. Then he thinks that thinking that means he is all the much more not ready to be a father.

Anna and Vincent don’t stay long. They thank the other couple before speeding off to catch their flight.

That night after getting into bed, Levi wraps his arms around Erwin and whispers, “I know you’re nervous, but Armin loves you so much. Just do what you always do and don’t think about it too much. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Although the words comforted him at night, the next day at work it’s hard for Erwin to focus. He keeps worrying about getting home and finding out some disastrous thing happened to his nephew, or even worse causing the disastrous thing. By the end of the day he’s gotten a fraction of the paperwork done that he’s usually able to in a day and is more tired than ever.

When he walks through the front door of his home he is hit with the strong smell of home cooked food.

“May I stir it again, Uncle Levi? I don’t think it’s done yet,” he hears Armin’s little voice, safe and unharmed which comforts him a bit. Erwin makes his way over to the living room couch and immediately collapses, shutting his eyes.

“You’ve already stirred it for as long as it needed to be,” Levi’s response gets a tiny whine out of Armin. “Don’t give me that. If we stir it anymore, the sauce won’t taste good.”

“Alright…”

“Anyway, I think he’s home. Why don’t you go say hi to Uncle Erwin, hm?”

There is a soft gasp and then the sound of small feet paps hurrying into the living room.

“Uncle Erwi-!” Armin immediately freezes and slaps both of his hands over his mouth upon seeing Erwin relaxed with his eyes closed. “Sleeping…” comes muffled through his fingers.

Erwin hears Armin move closer and climb on the couch, all the while little giggles bubbling up out of the boy’s mouth. Erwin continues to sit there, motionless, to keep up the illusion that he’s sleeping like the other believes to be true. Armin stands right beside him now and gently places his hands over each of Erwin’s eyes.

The little one lets out one last laugh before loudly saying, “Uncle Erwin! Guess who!”

Erwin jolts “awake” trying (and failing) to hide his smile, “Oh my, who turned out the lights?” He reaches up and feels for the source of his lack of vision. “Tiny hands! My only weakness.”

Armin is still snickering while Erwin moves his head to look around, but the hands stay securely over his eyes. “You have to guess if you want to see again.”

Erwin gives a few guesses, all of them wrong, and Armin bounces up and down on the couch, “No, no, no! Try again!”

The man let’s out an exaggerated sigh. “I just don’t know. I guess I’ll never see again.”

“No!” the tone of Erwin’s voice makes Armin’s heart break. He quickly removes his hands and climbs into Erwin’s line of vision. “You can see, uncle! Look, it was just me.”

“Armin! You sneaky little one,” he says, scooping up his nephew into a hug. “You got me.”

Armin’s laughter fills the living room and Erwin can’t help to think it’s like music to his ears.

“So, Armin,” Levi says from the archway connecting the living room to the kitchen, “did you welcome your uncle home? Or did you just temporarily blind him?”

“Oh right, welcome home, uncle!” Armin gives him a toothy smile. Erwin can’t help but return it.

“Thank you, little one.”

All throughout dinner, Armin tells Erwin about how he and Levi spent the day decorating the guest bedroom to look like his room just like at home. 

“We even drew pictures to hang up on the walls! Uncle Levi drew a lot of funny looking ones.”

Levi frowns, “Hey, I told you, I’m not an artist. And those crayons kept breaking in my hand. It was hard to get anything done.”

Erwin just laughs and nods along to whatever Armin tells him, even though a lot of his story is jumbled and parts are repeated multiple times.

After the meal, Erwin helps Armin get ready for bed while Levi hangs back to clean up the remains of dinner. Luckily, the boy doesn’t put up too much of a fight when he is asked to put on his jammies and brush his teeth. Though it does take the promise of a bed time story to get him to do it wholeheartedly.

Erwin makes up a story about a young prince that was locked away in a castle for many years, until finally he breaks out in the dead of night and makes his escape into the world. The prince goes on many adventures, meeting all kinds of different people, and sees more spectacular things than he could have ever dreamed. Armin pretends the prince is him.

Once the two men get into their own bed, they are both exhausted.

“Who knew having a kid would literally be the hardest thing ever in the entire history of space and time? He’s not even ours and I’m just-” Levi finishes his thought with a groan and rolls over, burying his face in the pillows.

“Are you already regretting saying that we’d look after him?”

“I was a little today to be honest. Armin’s really well behaved but he’s still a child and I have a shorter temper than I thought.”

“I could have told you that.”

“Shut up. You were the one that was so nervous about this. You barely had to do anything today.” 

Erwin laughs and wraps his arms around Levi, pulling him close. “I suppose you’re right. You didn’t do anything to hurt or scare him though, did you?”

“Of course not. What do you think I am, a monster?” Erwin chuckles again and shakes his head. “I don’t fully regret it though. Seeing you with Armin… it feels right. Like it was supposed to be like this, or something. I don’t know. I think I want it to be.“

“How about we get through this week with Armin, and then we’ll talk about a family of our own _without_ me shutting the idea down completely.”

Levi buries his face in Erwin's chest to hide the smile playing on his lips. “Can we go on a vacation first? I’m gonna need one after this week.”

“Of course, darling.”

Levi's smile widens and he kisses along Erwin’s collarbone. Down his chest. 

Erwin thinks nothing of it until the other starts getting hands-y.

“Levi…” his tone is warning.

“Come on, I deserve it after all the work I did today.”

“Armin is in the next room. You’ve heard stories about kids walking in and seeing too much. I’m not explaining to my sister how-”

Erwin is cut off by his own gasp when Levi rakes his nails up Erwin’s sides.

“I thought tiny hands were your only weakness.”

“You are incorrigible…”

The two of them aren’t able to get very far into foreplay. Levi, even more drained than he originally thought, passes out on top of Erwin a few heated kisses in. Once Erwin hears Levi’s faint snores, he repositions the both of them so that they won’t be sore in the morning.

They dream of children of their own.


End file.
